We buried you today. We stayed until the very very end. The sales guys in suits were back in their funeral home offices. It was the ground’s crew turn now.
One guy drove the backhoe and filled in the dirt over your casket. There is quite a protocol to making sure it’s done right. Everyone had a job and they worked with great respect as if they knew you. They had nothing to sell and nothing to offer but their labor. These were your kind of people. So I did what you would have done. I went over to them and introduced myself.
“Thank you for burying my son.” I reached out my hand for a handshake but Ricky opened his arms for a hug.
“I’m Ricky, and I just lost someone, too,” he said in a choked voice.
And there we were, hugging and speaking with the grounds crew. You were creating togetherness even though you were not even on this earth anymore.
Eventually, even the grounds crew had brushed the last bits of soil from the adjacent family markers and had finished squaring-off the raw earth of your new resting place.
I knelt down to pat the earth like I used to pat your back as a baby in the familiar rhythm, pat-pat-pat, pat-pat-pat. Your sister recognized it and gave a little laugh in spite of herself.
There’s no comforting you now, but I can’t help myself. Your body is here, but you are with the God of all comfort Himself. I can’t wait until I can see you again.
“Whose grave is this one?” asked your sister, indicating the empty plot right next to yours.
“That one is for your mom, so she can be the first one to see Tristan on the day of resurrection.” replied your dad.
Do I have to wait that long? Help me, God, to love well the ones left behind until I can see my Tristan again.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place[a] of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people,[b] and God himself will be with them as their God.[c] 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Rev. 21:3-4
